Question: I took out the PCB of one of my hard drive which is not getting detected just to check whether there’s any burned caps or chip and I found some corrosion/rust on the contact pads which makes the contacts with hard drive. I have uploaded the picture for the reference. How can I clean the corrosion/rust from the pads shown in red marked area? A little help would be great. Thanks.
Answer:I’ve used metal polish (eg Brasso) in the past, but be careful as it will also remove some of the plating.
If there is a JTAG connector on the underside of the PCB, you can practice shining it up. This connector is only used for debugging and manufacturing test purposes.
For example, see J6:
https://sep.yimg.com/ay/yhst-14437584971410/st2000vx000-1cu164-500-cv22-2tb-100687658-rev-c-3-5-sata-seagate-circuit-board-replacement-fw-14.gif